Love Lu Bird Baby

I have found this awesome shop, Lu Bird Baby. www.lubirdbaby.com

She sells the most adorable rolled fabric headbands and accessories. Go check her out!

Life as a New Mom

Well, Rowan is now 19 days old! Who knew time could fly by when you have a newborn around. I have been recovering well from the c-section and probably doing a lot more than I should. But, who can stand to just sit around all day when you have moving boxes staring you in the face and luring you to unpack them!

I can honestly say that being a Mom is one of the most exhausting, yet fulfilling and amazing experiences. I had no idea what I was in store for before this sweet little fella entered our lives and stirred it up in such an awesome way. Rowan still has his nights and days mixed up, which is a little frustrating at 1am when he just wants to be awake and not go to sleep till 3am. Hopefully he will learn soon that we are supposed to sleep at night and stay awake during the day.

I have always said that one of my goals in life is to be a Mommy. I am absolutely over the moon with Rowan and an excited to see him grow and learn. Thank you, God for allowing Erik and I to be the parents of this precious little boy!

Rowan Edward Wickstrum

Rowan Edward Wickstrum
Born on 5.29.10 at 2:01pm
7lb 12oz and 19 3/4 in long

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our son, Rowan Edward Wickstrum. Rowan's birth was quite an adventure, but worth every second. We had a scheduled induction on Friday morning at 6:30am due to hypertension. And so the waiting began...

I was progressing pretty quickly and made it to 4cm by 12pm. At 1pm, the doctor broke my water. The fast progression then slowed way down. By dinner time, I was 7cm and holding. I was checked again at 10pm and still 7cm. At this point I was getting pretty anxious and frustrated. I wanted to meet our baby boy so badly. To make matters worse, 3 other women in Labor & Delivery were either fairly close to delivering or were in the process of birthing their child.

Midnight came and went with little to no progress. So, the nurse took me off of pitocin to trick my body into contracting more once placed back on. With a room full of sleepy visitors, I began to cry. Not the "I'm really sad about the situation" cry, but the "I'm exhausted and uncomfortable and frustrated" cry! I managed to get about an hour total of sleep that night between my blood pressure cuff going off and the constant beeping of my medication pumps.

During shift change, Norma, my new assigned nurse was bound and determined to deliver this baby by 10am. Thank goodness!!! She increased the pitocin to beyond the normal limit in hopes that my body would respond. And it did! By 10am I had progressed to 9 1/2 cm. Rowan's head was descending quickly, so the nurse thought that pushing would force his head down and we would finally be able to deliver this baby.

4 hours of pushing later, the doctor gave me two options: rest for an hour to see if he descends more and try to push again OR go ahead and do a c-section. I immediately responded, "please do the c-section."

I began crying again. I really did not want a c-section in the first place and I was so hungry that I thought that meant another day of ice chips! The anesthesiologist came in and pushed more epidural medication, which unfortunately did not take. I began to cry even more because I could feel my contractions.

I was wheeled into the operating room. I ended up receiving a spinal because my body was rejecting the epidural medication. Erik joined me and a few short minutes later, we were introduced to our beautiful son! Poor little Rowan's head was too big and became lodged in my pelvis, so it was inevitable that we would end up with a c-section. Words could not explain the feelings that overwhelmed us as we touched his cute little face. Although, I underwent 28 hours of labor, I would do it all over again for this little guy!

It's Official

Our baby now has a name....

Rowan Edward Wickstrum

Welcome to Womanhood

It's official.... our sweet puppy, Luna, has become a woman. They grow up so fast!

4 months to go!

It's hard to believe that it's been a whole month since my last post. As you can see, my belly has gotten quite a bit larger and rounder. Strangers are noticing that I'm pregnant now and that's an exciting feeling. Our little baby boy keeps growing and growing. It seems that the further I get into my pregnancy, the stranger my dreams become...

5 Months Pregnant

I'm officially halfway there! Our sweet little baby boy will be here before we know it! Here are just a couple pictures taken by my friend, Dawn for my 5 month shoot.

It's a....

It's a BOY!!!! We are super excited to finally find out what we are having. He was quite the wiggler when we were doing the ultrasound, but was sure to show us that he is a little boy! He was running on my bladder. No wonder I have to pee so much. Looks like he will be a very active little boy.

First Belly Pic

This picture is just for fun. I thought it was cute!

Well, here it is. My first belly pic. (pardon the crookedness). I am now 18 weeks pregnant!

Wow, how time flies! We find out in a couple weeks if we are having a little boy or little girl.

We both think it's a little boy, but will be ecstatic either way. I'm already scheming up some

cute nursery ideas! I have started to feel the little one move around. Such a weird, but

amazing feeling! We will keep you posted when we find out the sex of the baby...

Oh Boy.... Or Girl

That's right, we have a baby on the way. The official date of arrival is June 4, 2010. We are very excited to bring a new life into this world and can't wait to meet the little guy or gal!

Sneaky Puppy

Look who figured out how to climb onto our super comfy bed! Can't say that I blame her. It's so much more comfortable than the floor. She's lucky that she's so stinkin' cute!

Backpack Outreach

I never really thought of myself as a good writer and surely not a good enough writer to have an article published in a newspaper.... but here it is. Soon, it will be published in the Neighbor to Neighbor newspaper of Clay County. I am honored to be able to share all of the efforts of Canvas Church with our surrounding community. I give all the glory to God!

In preparation for the upcoming school year, members of Canvas Church in Orange Park, FL embarqued on a backpack outreach to help kids in need within the Clay County area. To fulfill this need, Canvas Church along with 99.9 Gator Country hosted a school supplies drive for the community in hopes of gaining enough materials to fill 250 backpacks. Not only did they reach this goal, but they were able to attain enough materials to fully stock 300 backpacks. This event included fun for the entire family including great music broadcasted live by 99.9 Gator Country, face painting, bounce houses and some amazing giveaways for everyone that came out.

The opportunity to sponsor an entire school presented itself. Through this sponsorship, Canvas Church was able to reach a broad spectrum of families within the community. On August 20, members of Canvas Church set up shop in the cafeteria of Grove Park Elementary School for a backpack giveaway. They served this school with several different fun stations for the kids including headband making, face painting, individualized backpack labeling, balloon making courtesy of O2B Kids and much more. The night was a huge success. A need presented itself and Canvas Church along with others within the community stepped up to bless the kids of Grove Park Elementary School. For more information, check out Canvas Church's website at http://www.canvaschurch.net/.

90% is better than 100%

I have really been struggling recently with money, but who isn't?! I have been very selfish at times and have wanted to spend it how I think we should spend it. In fact, while putting together our budget, I left tithing for last. If we had any money left over, we would give it to the church. This would be after all our bills were paid and some spent on personal items. Some Sundays we didn't give anything because of poor planning. I'm definitely not proud of this, but it's a very real issue in our lives.

Over the past few weeks, the sermon series at our church (canvaschurch.net) entitled "Mine, All Mine" has really convicted me. The sermon on "My Money" really hit home. Instead of putting God first and giving to Him first, we were actually giving to him LAST! How selfish is that?! So, with our last paycheck, we put our trust in God and gave our 10% as our first expenditure instead of our last.

Luke 6:30 says, "Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

I am already starting to see this good measure in our lives. On a good week at work, I have been getting about 18-20 patients (I get paid by the patient). By the end of the week it's looking like I will have seen 30 patients this week. Praise God! I want to encourage each of you to put your trust in the Lord and He will prevail!

Hazard to Myself

I'll spare you any pictures with this post! Before I was headed back to work, I decided that I would go ahead and start dinner. That way, all Erik had to do was heat it up before he went to class tonight. I was thinking I was being such a good wife, mindlessly chopping the onions, when all of a sudden..... the knife slipped! I have never been in so much pain in my life. I had a gaping hole in my thumb. I was screaming and crying hysterically because it hurt so bad. Erik pulled me over to the sink and began rinsing my wound out. Meanwhile, Luna scurried over to me and got between me and the sink and leaned on me while I was crying. Only 3 months old and she was so concerned about me. It was like she knew what was going on! Such an awesome puppy!

After putting a paper towel over my thumb and applying pressure to it, he had to sit down and take some deep breaths. He was going to get sick himself. He couldn't stand seeing me in such agony! A paramedic, who has probably seen worse things couldn't bear to see his wife in pain. I am so very fortunate to have the husband that I do! God has truly blessed me by placing him in my life!

I called work to tell them what was going on and they urged me to stay home, against my own will. Afterall, I am a massage therapist and it would be pretty difficult to massage without using my thumb. So, Alas I sit at home with a gimp thumb and my very loving husband and puppy!

Meet Luna

It's offical! We have begun the expansion of our family! Erik and I went to go get sweet little Luna. She's still pretty unsure about us. She has a little bit of an ADD problem, but whodoesn't?! fan, toy, us, fan, toy, food, us...

We are super excited to have a dog in the house. It will be interesting to see our parenting skills of the little pup...

It's not all about me

It's amazing how one little situation can teach you so much about life and about yourself. Today, I felt a little adventurous so I went to the equestrian center to swim laps in the pool. I had a set routine in my mind and did not want to be bothered. I simply wanted to do my swim and be on my way. God had other plans for me today.
Shortly into my swim, a very cute 6 year old girl asked me what I was doing. I grudgingly said, "I'm swimming laps," and hoped that she would just let me finish this lap. She responded, "No what are you doing? Are you swimming backwards?" I patiently explained to her that it was called the backstroke and taught her how to do it. I told her to swim with me, but it was too hard for her to keep up. So, I thought I was in the clear and I could peacefully continue my swim. Midway through my next lap, this cute girl appeared behind me struggling to catch up to me. I soon realized that she really wanted me to show her how to swim. I taught her the butterfly stroke, breaststroke, sidestroke, backstroke and freestyle. Before I realized it, I swam 950 yards!

Things that I learned today:

• It's not all about me sometimes
• Slow down and live in the moment
• Patience truly is a virtue and I think I'm getting better at it
• Children have a way of lightening your mood and perspective
• This cute little girl helped me just as much as I helped her
• I really love swimming and forgot about it for a while

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these."

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Erik

10. He has a good work ethic and has compassion for others.

9. He has dinner ready for me when I get home from work!

8. He makes me laugh.

7. He is a Godly man.

6. He willingly makes a grocery run for aleve and ice cream if I don't feel well.

5. He is the next Lance Armstrong.

4. He makes me feel special.

3. When he is at work, he calls just to say "hi."

2. He loves Mexican food just as much as I do!

1. He loves me a lot!

Sweet Sweet Sound

I am an instrument of the living God
My life a melody to His name.
More than the songs I sing
Worship is everything
I live to glorify my King

Hear the song of my life
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound
I raise this anthem high
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound

Through all the mire and clay
You're washing me with grace
You carry me, oh Lord, through it all
So I will testify even in the fire
I live to praise my Savior

I just love this song, "Sweet Sweet Sound" by Sarah Reeves. It seems very relevant for this phase of my life. I love to sing, but more than that I love to worship and inspire others to worship with me. I pray that every note that I sing will glorify God and that he will be able to use me to further His kingdom. Music has always been my refuge and I hope to share my voice for many days to come!

Farm Fun

This weekend we went up to the farm for Brian and Sarah's wedding. The wedding was absolutely beautiful. It's always a good time up at the farm. Our car keys had a mind of their own and decided to hide out in Austin's car for the whole weekend. Maybe that means we should spend more time up at the farm.... I would be ok with that!

HabiJax 2009

This weekend Erik and I along with our Canvas Church family took part in HabiJax (habitat for humanity). We helped put a roof on a house. We managed to come out with sunburns, all 10 fingers still attached and a happy homeowner one step closer to her new house! All for the work of Christ. We were glad to help those in need and hope to do more projects in the future.